Chapter 1 - The Wheelchair at Table Twelve
The first laugh came before Ethan Vance even reached the banquet table.
It was soft at first. A whisper behind champagne glasses.
Then Brooke Sterling saw him.
Her smile froze.
“Ethan?”
He stopped beside Table Twelve, one hand resting on the wheel of a black chair.
Brooke looked him over slowly.
Expensive tuxedo.
Pale face.
Wheelchair.
No assistant.
No entourage.
Ethan looked at the empty place card beside her.
“They did.”
Brooke lowered her voice.
“I know.”
“Ethan, don’t make this awkward.”
Across from her sat Chad Mercer, heir to Mercer Capital and the man Brooke had been photographed with for the last three months.
Chad leaned back.
“Is this the guy?”
Brooke did not answer.
She simply put one hand on Ethan’s chair and pushed him away from the table.
Not hard.
Just enough.
“There’s an accessible table near the kitchen,” she said.
No one objected.
Ethan looked around the ballroom.
CEOs.
Investors.
A young banquet attendant carrying a tray of sparkling water.
She crouched slightly so she did not speak down to him.
“Sir, would you like me to help you find your assigned seat?”
Her name tag read ISABELLA CRUZ.
Ethan looked at her.
“I know.”
“Then why?”
She shrugged.
“Because you look like somebody just shoved you out of your own seat.”
For the first time that night, Ethan smiled.
Behind them, Brooke laughed at something Chad whispered.
Isabella glanced toward her.
“She your ex?”
“Yes.”
“Ouch.”
Isabella pointed toward the ballroom entrance.
“Want the kitchen table or your actual seat?”
“Good.”
She took the place card from Brooke’s table.
Then she looked at the printed name beneath Ethan’s.
ETHAN VANCE — FOUNDER, VANCE HOLDINGS.
Before she could speak, Ethan quietly folded the card in half.
“Not yet.”
Isabella stared at him.
“Not yet what?”
May you like
Ethan looked toward Brooke.
“Not yet time for them to know.”
